Across the country, a public health crisis is unfolding in countless rural communities. Factory farms and other industrial agricultural operations are poisoning our environment and drinking water with a dangerous pollutant: nitrate. We know the culprits and we know the solutions. It’s past time for our leaders to put people over Big Ag profits and enact changes that will actually protect our health.

For decades, rural communities have faced devastating health issues and rising costs due to nitrate pollution. Ineffective state regulations and recalcitrant agencies are failing to address the problem at the root by reining in polluters.

From Iowa to Oregon, rural communities are demanding action. So far, families and advocates in five states have petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take emergency action under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. Now that Trump is in control of the EPA, the federal government is unlikely to protect families from agricultural pollution. State leaders can and must take up the mantle. 

Factory Farms Pollute Groundwater With Dangerous Nitrates

Everyone should have access to safe drinking water. Yet factory farms — industrial-scale warehouses used to raise hundreds, thousands, even millions of animals — are making this impossible for many. 

Factory farms produce and store massive amounts of manure in cesspools called “lagoons” and then dump or spray it onto farm fields. It can then seep into the groundwater, contaminating wells. 

These operations produce so much waste, it’s impossible to dispose of it safely. Manure lagoons often leak, and factory farms regularly oversaturate fields. Federal and state regulations fail to hold factory farms accountable for these practices and the resulting public health harms. 

Responsibly managing factory farms’ waste would eat into Big Ag’s profits. Instead, they get rid of it as cheaply as possible and pass the health costs onto neighboring communities.

Factory farm waste can include all kinds of pollutants, including heavy metals, pathogens, and toxic nitrates. Studies link drinking highly nitrate-contaminated water with cancers and birth defects. Nitrates can cause “blue baby syndrome,” which can be lethal for infants.

The EPA has a “maximum contaminant level” for nitrates; if public water systems find nitrogen concentrations in water at 10 milligrams per liter (mg/L) or higher, they are legally required to address it to protect public health. 

However, this protection does not extend to private wells, and communities nationwide have nitrate drinking water levels much higher. Worse, scientists have linked nitrate ingestion to cancers even at levels well below the maximum contaminant level.

In Minnesota’s Karst region, an estimated 9,200 residents have well water with contamination above this federal limit. And in Yakima Valley, Washington, one test showed nitrate levels at 190 mg/L. In Oregon, the levels of nitrate contamination have been rising for decades, despite commitments and promises from polluters and state officials since the 1990s. 

State Efforts Across the Country Have Failed

In recent years, communities in Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Washington have petitioned the EPA to address these crises.

These communities rely on underground aquifers for drinking water, but growing factory farms are contaminating them. Nitrate pollution is endangering hundreds of thousands of residents across these states.

So far, efforts to address nitrate contamination have failed. 

Notably, state permit systems for factory farms are failing to fulfill their purposes: preventing and monitoring factory farm pollution. Nationwide, this failure to regulate allows 10,000 large factory farms to pollute with impunity.

Moreover, state leaders aren’t dedicating the resources needed to fix the problem. In Oregon, the state’s 2024 Nitrate Reduction Plan itself admitted it didn’t have the resources, funds, or staff needed to “implement [the plan] effectively.”

Meanwhile, a seven-year groundwater management program in Washington’s Yakima Valley did little more than sampling and monitoring. Documenting the problem is important, but states must then act to address it.

In some states, the EPA has worked with state officials and local groups to address nitrate pollution. While these include some welcome first steps, like pushing state officials to test more wells or provide filtration systems, they don’t go far enough.

In Washington, however, the EPA has recently moved to actually hold industrial polluters accountable. Last year, the EPA and the Department of Justice sued a cluster of dairies under the Safe Drinking Water Act for contributing to this public health crisis. In December, the judge ordered the dairies to provide well testing and bottled water or water treatment systems to nearby communities at risk from nitrate-contaminated wells.

We need more action like this, and state officials can and must also step in with strong mandates and regulations to force factory farms to clean up their act.

Case Study: Oregon State Officials Must Stand Up Against Nitrate Polluters

All the way back in 1990, state officials designated the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area (LUBGWMA) and adopted recommendations for voluntary actions intended to address the drinking water crisis there. But the plan had no teeth and has predictably led to no improvement in the region’s water quality. 

Even though we know that factory farms are a major contributor of nitrate pollution, Oregon has allowed the industry to explode in the LUBGWMA. The Basin has become a sacrifice zone. It’s now home to the state’s largest beef feedlot, the country’s largest mega-dairy, and the infamous Port of Morrow, which in turn serves Big Ag companies, including a Tillamook cheese plant.

Rather than standing up for Oregonians and fighting to alleviate the crisis with all available tools, Governor Kotek issued an “emergency” executive order granting the Port of Morrow permission to violate its wastewater permit. 

The Port has violated that permit thousands of times in less than two decades, dumping nitrogen-rich industrial waste onto nearby fields. While the order expired in February, this was just another example of state officials putting powerful polluters before people’s health. 

In 2023, Oregon lawmakers took the first steps to regulate factory farms in decades by passing SB85. But far more needs to be done. Elected officials must stop bowing to pressure from big polluters who put profits over people. Instead, we need them to require mandatory pollution reduction in Oregon’s groundwater management areas.

As Food & Water Watch continues working with our petition allies to demand action from the EPA, we’re also working with communities to defend their water from Big Ag at the state level, including with organizers on the ground in Oregon and Iowa. Every community needs access to clean water, and corporate polluters must be held accountable.